


Clashing

by palekwami (angstyfanboi)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Best Friends, Businessmen, Edited, Friends to Lovers, Haruno Sakura - Freeform, M/M, No Smut, No Spoilers, Not Beta Read, Not really angsty, Uchiha Sasuke - Freeform, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Uzumaki Naruto - Freeform, enemies to friends to strangers to lovers, gaara is just there to cockblock, naruto has trouble with his feelings, sakura is the matchmaker, so he runs away from his probems, they drink a lot, they fix they're problems in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:33:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21904537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstyfanboi/pseuds/palekwami
Summary: Three parts in which Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke fall apart before clashing.Edited version.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Kudos: 25





	1. Leaving

Sometimes, Uchiha Sasuke wonders if he really thinks things through as much as he prides himself in doing.

He’s part of the dream team of Konoha, one of the largest suppliers of military equipment in America, carrying over the Uchiha name on his position as Administrative Director. He has two incredible friends— one of them managed to become the only best friend he has ever had— who are equally gifted in their jobs and at putting up with his sunny personality.

Yet, as he nurses his whiskey, side by side with said best friend, Naruto, he realizes he should’ve really thought things through more carefully, instead of just claiming he does so.

Naruto never gets tired of talking with both his mouth and his hands; maybe it has to do with his bold and giddy personality and the fact that he’s been spending most of his time in his office this past few weeks— not that Sasuke keeps track of him, _absolutely not_ , thank you very much. So now, more than ever, Uchiha remains quiet to listen to all the gushed and colorful details of how pissed the blond is due to the incompetence of the production manager.

He finishes his drink with only one gulp, before using the poor liquid courage to finally speak up.

One hand moves to Naruto’s arm, clutching it lightly as if afraid and hesitant of both hurting and claiming his hungry attention, but it catches it all the same, for his bright cerulean eyes sparkle as they lock with his, and his mouth shuts the very same second. It’s amazing how he can be so high up in his own world but still jump down to include others in a single heartbeat.

Something selfish inside of Sasuke tells him he doesn’t want to be _one of the_ others, nor does he want him to have others stealing away his precious time and tender attention.

Something selfish that only seems to grow, no matter how much distance he should be putting between them both.

“I’m leaving.”

Naruto raises one single blond brow, a sparkle akin to confusion and so many questions twirling inside of his electrical blue orbs. He takes one gulp from his gin, twirling the high cup between his thumb and index finger with a graceful speed only someone well used to using his hands could muster.

“Already? You must be really drained then; the contracts are taking away your vitality but that’s to be expected since you’re a weak-…” But Sasuke interrupts him, not calmly with fingers laced over his arm like last time, just fast and quiet and all too serious as if ripping off a painful bandage from a just barely healed wound. Though it seems exactly like it, from where he’s standing.

“No, I’m leaving Konoha, I’m handing my resignation letter tomorrow.”

Silence etches like knives onto his skin, so cold and so silent, like death itself, Sasuke even fears to breathe as if it would be proven impossible. Naruto is never this silent, never this stagnant, never this _cold_. It’s something so adamant, persistent and _palpable_ it settles itself within the crevices of Sasuke’s bones as he waits for a reaction, _any reaction really_ , from Uzumaki.

But more and more minutes pass and it becomes harder and harder to breathe. No more idle fingers to coil the high blue foot of the large gin cup. He can’t keep looking at the man, not anymore, so he busies his eager eyes with the asymmetrical lines tainted blue. He finds himself more and more absorbed at how different that blue is from Naruto’s eyes. Eyes that are now darkened and concealed by the rebel strands of bright blond hair.

“Is this a joke?” It’s hissed icily but still softened down with everlasting hope, curling around Sasuke’s throat and lungs and heart and making it impossible to decipher what is real and what is not. For Naruto’s eyes, now that he’s staring at him right and straight, have never seemed so _wounded_ and raw _._ It’s a new feeling altogether, a feeling Sasuke never thought he would sense in the presence of his bubbly and easygoing coworker, his _best friend_.

The rising redness of his cheeks could be mistaken by shyness, but it’s all just from the sudden heat overtaking his skin in a forming layer of too-cold sweat. Hesitant and low, afraid of something he isn’t quite sure enough to mention out loud, Uchiha answers.

“No. I’ll clear my office until the end of the week.”

Naruto snaps, overwhelmed, caged by the thought of being left once more by someone he _loves_. The door seems so far away, miles and miles between them, but the walls are closing in around him and he can’t breathe as easily as he could before Sasuke came up with that.

Emotions, be it to understand or to control, were never his forte. He is clear like water right from the spring, spreading in a long thin sheet of translucent water reflecting the sky above and showing the life bellow. Everyone who looks at him can see the utter despair, the agony overpowering him without having to put up a fight against any type of restraint, the ugly monster of betrayal and abandonment rising from a locked cavity in his chest to show on his shaken up demeanor.

There’s the sound of shattering glass and whispers and the hissing of the chair gliding against the floor in a hurry.

When Uchiha Sasuke looks up, Uzumaki Naruto is no longer there.


	2. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke didn't expect to see him again.

Alone, yet again, Uchiha Sasuke opens the door to the small pub he frequents since _that_ night.

Inside it’s a lot warmer, considering the brittle cold bites away at his reddened nose and makes it hard to keep his eyes open for more than one second. He’s sure he’s never shed as many tears as he has now that his eyes burn with the cold wind.

It’s unusually full, but there are so many companies and branches in the vicinities it’s stranger the fact it’s so empty most of the time.

There’s something, however, that freezes Sasuke right in front of the now-closed door, and it’s not the difference of temperatures.

A shock of familiar pink hair, now so short but still so glossy. A pair of mint eyes, clear and soft and full of vibrant life. A pair of mint eyes that blink too many times to keep count once they spot him.

Sakura walks to him, a smile wide on her lips, two open arms though she never crosses the boundaries of actually trying to hug him since she knows physical contact isn’t something he enjoys. He thought she had forgotten that already, a year has passed since they last shared any words, but apparently, she hasn’t and it warms him more than he either lets known or admits himself.

“You look so much better! But cold, so cold. Come, come!” Sasuke wants to say no to her, to run away from her engulfing warmth that never pushes him away despite the fact he left without as much as a warning to her, still not over the fact Naruto shut him away completely.

And then he’s freezing all over again. And again it’s not for the heat seeping into his bones, at least not for the physical one.

Naruto had always been handsome, good looking, _beautiful._ At least as far as Sasuke is concerned. But now, since he hasn’t seen him for so long, he is surely _mesmerizing._

The blond is still shorter than him, still lean and bright like a beacon of holiness against the corruption of a dark abyss. But his light is dimmed, somehow. His tanned skin flushes prettily across his nose, around his eyes and lips. He wears casually but still in warm fabrics and fashioned combinations. Sakura is probably behind it since Naruto could barely say goodbye to his obnoxious orange sweaters even for council meetings.

His black sweater has a shallow V line collar and it’s tucked just right inside of his tailored trousers, just as black. The only color in his clothes is the beige coat, one that reaches a palm above his knees. And he just sits there, a gin— because of course, it has to be a gin— between his fingers, already close to being finished. A red-haired man is sitting by his side, all flashy smiles and stray hands and a long conversation that seems endless from where he is standing, watching the scene unravel like a movie in a TV screen filled with static.

“He was a mess.” Sakura murmurs, taking him gently to one of the tall strolls in front of the counter. She talks to the bartender but Sasuke has his mind somewhere else so he doesn’t notice what she says until she offers him a whiskey, freshly cut emerald eyes adorned with a kind expression of pure understanding. He takes the glass and drowns himself in the cold burning of the alcohol dripping down his throat and setting his stomach and chest aflame.

“He didn’t show up for two whole weeks after you left, and even went as far as to refuse to speak to the guy who took your position.” A silent question is exchanged between them and Sakura promptly answers. “That’s Gaara and most certainly not the guy. He still isn’t on speaking terms with him even if the poor dude is just trying to keep it light between them to keep the business running smoothly.”

“Thought you’d lock them in the archives until they went from enemies to friends already.” He accuses, though there’s no true spite even if his detached tone is usually misunderstood by many.

Sakura smiles, but it’s sad and it never reaches her light eyes.

“You guys were just too stubborn to admit you clicked well together, all I did was give you a little push.” It goes without saying that she could never do it again, not with the state Naruto was after he left.

And it’s unbearable. To know he caused so much pain when he never intended to do so, it burns him, consumes him whole like shards of burning iron, etched onto his skin in patterns that scream of loss.

“I have to explain everything to him, I have to-…” Sakura reaches out to him, putting her gentle yet firm hand over the sleeve of his coat, to avoid touching his skin, but still keeping it long enough to calm his rushing mind.

“Need a push?”

And that’s how he ends up just outside Naruto’s apartment, sitting cross-legged against his door, waiting for him to get home.

He counts away the seconds that turn into minutes and dissolve in to boredom and anxiety and heat and erratic heartbeats that jump up and down within his heavy chest.

He reaches out to grab his phone from his pocket. There’s a text message from a number he never saw lighting up his screen in a terribly long time.

**Sakura: Hes leaving**

**Sakura: Gambatte!**

But Sasuke has walked from the small pub to the apartment. It took him five minutes and thirteen seconds, precisely, and he knows he won’t be ready to face Naruto once he sees them at the end of those five minutes.

Worse of it all is the possibility of him bringing someone else along, someone else he was close at the pub, someone else with red hair and someone else who never left the way Sasuke did. That Gaara guy seemed to make it easier for him to smile, or at least easier than he ever managed with his sharp words and spat arguments fueled by so many emotions Uchiha has trouble listing.

And he is not ready. His hands are shaking so hard when he gets up fast and shakily like hesitant young thunders. His wobbly knees barely manage to keep him standing straight and he uses the firm wall as the only thing to keep him grounded while the ground shakes beneath his cold feet. His chest aches but not warmly, just so _cold_ and empty like a pressurized room sitting in a dark void where all sound is sucked in. He can’t wait anymore, he can’t stand watching him so close and yet still so far after the distance he reluctantly but surely managed to draw in between them.

“ _Sasuke_?”

The breathy voice snaps him out of his panicked state before shoving him deeper into the hole of anxiety. He looks up to meet Naruto’s eyes, unaware of how different he may be. Again, he notices the usually warm light surrounding the blond is dimmed. His eyes are darker than he remembers— and he _remembers_ them— the circle of blue now closer to a grayish navy against the blueberry. So rough around the sharp edges that scream of betrayal and _guilt_. His hair is longer, still as untamed and golden like sunrays incarnated, soft to the eyes making his eager fingertips irk to touch the strands and prove his theory.

“Hey, I-…”

“What are you doing here?”

Hurt clenches his chest, his _heart_. He finds out the meaning of not being able to breathe despite having so much air at his disposition. Sasuke doesn’t know what to do to with his hands, where to keep them or where to move them. Sasuke doesn’t know what to do with his feet, whether to urge them forward to him or away from all the guilt. Sasuke doesn’t know what to do with his body, altogether— his organs are a jumbling mess jumping and screaming and unable to properly function the way he always trained them to.

Naruto breathes heavy and loud like a caged animal getting ready to run once someone gets too near, and Sasuke still remembers all too well the sound of the chair gliding across the floor and the broken glass on the counter.

They don’t talk, the air heavy with silence apart from the quiet, panicked intakes of breath each one takes. The heavy coat the blond uses isn’t enough to hide how sharply his chest heaves with both the deep heartbeats and the rapid succession of his breathing. He feels like he’s drowning even without the water, choking even with so much air around. Sasuke seems to steal it all, just like he usually did before taking Naruto’s hopes with his parting.

Uzumaki never blamed Sakura for being the puppeteer pulling the threads behind their friendship. He was the one who told her about the platonic crush he harbored for the Uchiha in the first place, knowing very damn well she was a mastermind that liked to play the matchmaker. It was only natural her plan worked out perfectly.

 _Almost_.

Neither of them expected Uchiha Sasuke to hand his resignation letter. And if Sakura learned how to forgive him even if he never gave her anything even resembling an explanation, Naruto never truly did. The loss of a friend, a _best_ friend, he always held in such a great account, under such a blinding light of respect and awe, the loss was unbearable. No matter how many times he had been through it, it was always painful and overwhelming and he couldn’t control himself well enough. He wished he could, but his own guilt prevented him from being able to forgive.

And the betrayal… The utter disloyalty he showed by not telling him from the beginning, by allowing Naruto into his life just like Naruto opened up space for him. All the shared nights in one of their balconies, drinking until the moon doubled itself, talking until they had trouble conjuring voice for the rest of the day. The shared meals, the shared arguments, the shared hoodies, and shirts.

Naruto still remembers the first night Sasuke slept over when they had one too many drinks and passed out cold over his couch. He woke up with knots over knots under knots all across his back, but to see Sasuke’s head perched over his shoulder, so quietly and angelic and serene, had been enough to keep him in the same uncomfortable position until the other male woke up at last.

Then it all shattered that night.

All the late-night talks, and— _ugh—_ healthy dinners they cooked and shared. All the hidden jokes and light bickering and familiarity of everything between them. All gone along with his presence, vanishing from Naruto’s life even faster than the arrival of snow.

But Uzumaki Naruto is no longer the same.

Whilst he would run to the safety of his apartment, now he simply closes his eyes for a few seconds, regaining his ground, his stability. His treacherous heart aches in the way a lover’s heart does when it breaks, though they were never lovers, to begin with; at least not out of Naruto’s conjured fantasies.

He opens his eyes to stare in the dark, black, hollow in all but pain and regret, eyes of Sasuke. He isn’t as pale as he was a year ago, as thin, as tired. There’s a healthy and cold blush on his cheeks. His hair remains the same if a tad more rebel. His lips are red from all the biting and the harsh cold. His lean hands fidget against one another as he has never fidgeted before. His cold and impenetrable armor is gone and it shows when he sighs in pure exhaustion even if their exchange is short.

“Come on in.”

And he does. With all the hesitance of someone who’s hurt before almost as bad as he has hurt back, Sasuke enters.

Cups and cups of ramen litter the floor. There are empty cans of beer over every surface that isn’t already filled to the brim with junk. The only seemingly cleaner part of what Sasuke can see in the large table on the living room, but the stacks of paperwork are the reason behind it.

“Do you want anything? Water, coffee, tea?”

On any other occasion, Sasuke would bicker with him for all his unhealthy habits and the inability to keep his home clean. But on any other occasion, he and Naruto would still be friends.

“I’m good, thank you.”

So he simply stays there, feeling more out of place than ever. Naruto’s previous apartment was smaller and warmer, his one is just messy and cold and so much more overwhelming as if it reflects the owner’s own state of mind. He fears it does.

“You hm- you look better. Healthier.” He notices with his heart breaking more and more within his chest. It’s true: he does look better. Naruto is happy that he managed to find a job that made him happy enough to start taking care of himself; but he is also guilty that he didn’t listen to his explanations, being just as much to blame for the way they parted.

“I want to explain myself to you.” Naruto smiles and there’s something off about it. It’s not a challenging one, but a sad dimmed smile of someone who realized it much before he voiced his reason from standing outside his apartment, waiting.

“Okay.”

“Konoha was in the brim of being bankrupted, Naruto, everything was falling apart at the seams, every contract, every bill. From the moment I stepped in there, I knew it was only a matter of time. And I still tried my best but then I got a proposal for another company and I _knew_ I had to accept it. I owed myself that much.”

In fact, Konoha was rotted on the inside, something that only worsened with Sasuke’s departure.

“I know.”

Sasuke stops breathing. He is painfully aware of the presence of his lungs within his ribcage, aware of the pressure pressing them together from the inside. Painfully aware of every particle of light streaming in a curtain of yellowish glow that warms the air and still never warms it enough.

“I’ve always known. I accepted the position knowing Konoha was in a bad place, I kept working there knowing it would only be a matter of time before it got out to the public just how fake the image of prosperity was.” Naruto’s eyes filter the light from above, and they seem hurt, though there’s something else, raw and honest. He _understands_ him. “I don’t blame you for leaving, though, at least not now. You truly look more like yourself than you ever did the few months before you left.”

Uchiha Sasuke is out of words, out of thoughts.

He doesn’t know what to say, what to think, what to do. He doesn’t know how to breathe, how to shove the words out of his lips, how to untangle his tongue.

“I was just unprepared for that, Sasuke.” He explains, softly as if the man in front of him is a small child who hasn’t seen enough of the world to understand his words. “You never mentioned anything about it, _never_ , and we had been friends for _two years_ so I felt like I deserved more time to adjust, you know? I’m also sorry for not letting you explain and for ignoring your calls. And for not saying goodbye. And for many other things I did that made me an awful friend.”

And there it is. The moment his whole resolve shatters.

Because Naruto is many things but sad Naruto isn’t really Naruto, and Sasuke may have a heart strong enough to deal with many things, but never the heart to see his _best friend_ , the man he still _likes_ , so terribly heartbroken.

When he speaks, his voice is quiet and unsure.

“It’s okay, at least you let me explain now.”

His blue eyes are shinning more than usual. Sasuke knows he’s trying to keep the tears from falling because he is too. So he does what he does best.

Sasuke turns around to leave. Naruto doesn’t stop him.

When the black-haired man looks to the other through the closing gap of the door, he notices just how hurt his sapphire eyes look under the light.

The door locks behind him, and Sasuke still can’t find enough strength to breathe.


	3. Clash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura plays the matchmaker yet again, and Sasuke and Naruto realize there are many other ways of speaking.

The second time they meet isn’t a coincidence.

Unlike Sasuke, Sakura prides herself and trusts her planning abilities enough to know everything will work out the way she wants it to. She’s a people’s person— no wonder she is the best Commercial Director on the field— and she knows how to use those abilities of hers just right.

So she notices the bartender’s recognition and surprise when she buys Sasuke a drink. It means he goes there often and never accompanied. Then she notices the hurt and jealousy in Sasuke’s eyes and expression when he notices Gaara and Naruto. It means his heart longs for him and that he regrets hurting him.

The next day, she notices the trembling on Naruto’s hands, the purple circles underneath his darkened eyes rimmed with red of both exhaustion and sadness.

Devious little thing her head is, for the moment he locks himself inside his office, Haruno Sakura begins to plan to the tiniest detail how she will bring Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto together.

For good.

That same night, before Naruto manages to slip in between the glass doors of Konoha and Sakura’s fingers, she runs over to him with her heels in one of her hands while the other reaches out to grab his wrist with her sharp nails digging holes.

You and me, last night’s pub.” And with a wink, she adds. “Let’s drink ourselves to a coma.”

As if he needed further convincing.

So there he is, alone, nursing a _whiskey_ of all things. Something came up and Sakura couldn’t go meet him but he wanted to get drunk anyway so he does it even without the company. Anyone who knows him would be aware something is terribly wrong because Uzumaki Naruto is known for enjoying surprises and adventures but also for hating whiskey more than anything else.

Yet there he is. Drinking that burning alcohol with taints of gold, something that should mean it tastes good but to him, it’s like liquid dust and old mold.

He chugs it down nevertheless.

“I thought you said you’d never drink whiskey ever again in your life.”

It’s a soft, grave voice, softer than he remembers. Naruto doesn’t look to him, feeling his body moving to the stroll by his side and then the movement of the bartender as he takes his order and prepares the drink.

Naruto never answers for he can’t admit to either of them that the only reason is the gaping wound Sasuke left with last night’s talk. He can’t admit to either of them the need to fill the hollowness of longing and hurt craving holes inside of his chest.

Somehow, Uchiha seems to understand and share his needs, since the bartender carefully hands him a high cup with gin.

… 

When the moon is so, _so_ , high, both men stumble on the hallway, eyes too closed in pleasure and a feral need to clash after being apart for so long. Their hands find foreign strands of hair to push and pull in a waltz. Naruto is pushed against the wall, letting a moan die on his taken lips when Sasuke sucks in his bottom lip to keep it tightly but gently pulled in between his teeth.

Their feet are tangled messily, as Sasuke moves away from Naruto’s presence to open the door. Call it eagerness, call it fear, but Naruto doesn’t like not being sewed to Sasuke, just like they’re one single person, so he promptly grabs his waist, pressing his hot chest against the brunette’ backs, kissing and licking and sucking the soft skin bellow and behind his ear with some effort since he’s taller. His hair is cold and it tickles his nose but it’s not enough to push him away.

Not that Sasuke wants to push him away, not now.

They trip inside closing the door shut with a bang and barely remembering to lock the door before Sasuke guides him to the couch. Their bodies mingle together as Naruto ends up caged between the soft leather and Sasuke’s hard body, whose muscles are firm and evident to the close touch.

Stray hands, which temperature could rival flaming lava itself, move to shove away pieces of clothing with nothing close to shyness or hesitance. The eagerness is palpable, the lusting desire consuming.

“I-… Oh, fuck.” It’s all Naruto manages to croak out as Sasuke grabs his cock over his boxers, his fingers kneading lightly with a firm hold the covered length. Reality seems a dull painting, fuzzy and so foggy he has trouble reacting to it as the feeling of every single one of Uchiha’s touches on his body. It’s like chains binding him, pulling him farther and farther away from the moment and into somewhere deeper and darker and where no one can reach them or disturb them.

Snap.

A phone rings in the pocket of Naruto’s tossed trousers. He outstretches his arm— Sasuke is amazed by his flexibility because _how_ , really— and takes the stupid device to see Gaara calling him at this ungodly, and pleasurable, hour of the night.

“Hey…” He tries to keep his moans to himself, to push Sasuke’s eager mouth from his lips as the taller man moves in to swallow his lust-filled gasps. His dark eyes narrow in the darkness, black so black and yet so warm and full and darker somehow as he drinks the sight of Naruto’s flushed face, black pupils blown wide and crimson lips, like honeyed warm wine.

“ _Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to have a drink with me, now?”_ Sasuke snorts loudly before taking his hand off the top of his boxers to grab the phone. Uzumaki is still so fucking overwhelmed it’s too troubling to ask him what the hell he’s doing or try to stop him.

“Sorry, we’re trying to fuck so maybe try another time.” _Or never_.

Naruto blinks. Once. Twice. Thrice.

When his eyes close for the fourth time Sasuke kisses him with every fiber of his being hell-bent on taking the ability to breathe away from him. The blond’s lips are inviting him, pulling him in like a magnet. He wishes he had done this before: before things got chaotic before they bid their goodbyes rather violently like pouring rain and thunders.

And his body, underneath his, feels so good pressing against him, so perfectly as if it was made just for him. And his heart, as treacherous as that little shit is, makes him wonder just for how long he’ll be able to hold him in between his arms, to feel his heartbeat resonating through his hollow, heavy bones, all the way to his own in synch.

“You didn’t need to tell him that.”

Sasuke smiles against Naruto’s lips. The empty hand never goes back down after putting the phone away. Instead, it caresses the other man’s cheek in a slow murmur of fallen petals, lovingly stroking the whisker-like scars on the left side of his face. Their foreheads are glued together, their eyes meet halfway and Uchiha loses himself in the hurt hue of pain across his blue orbs. It inquires him over and over again if he’ll make him leave once the morning rolls around in tints of salmon and peach.

“Just making sure he knows.”

Naruto wishes he could cage his own heart, throw it out of his chest to stop it from getting wild every time Sasuke does something. He arches his backs to meet the other man’s lips, slowly, gently. He needs him to stay close, to prove this isn’t another dream in an alternative reality where Sasuke never left and they became more than best friends. Those lucid dreams were the most painful when Naruto awoke and realized just how far away he was from that suggestion.

He leans into his touch, to the warmness seeping into his face from where the back of the stray fingers softly trail paths of nurture and care. He basks in every ounce of warmness his lover is willing to give him, unknowing to the fact Sasuke hasn’t feel this warm ever since that night a year ago. Unknowing to the fact Sasuke feels the same way and is just as sure that Naruto must be the sun for he’s never been in the presence of such tender light.

The lust is still there, but it has dimmed. Nostalgia clings to both, taking them back to those ephemerally eternal nights shared in between secrets and memories of heartbreak and glory. Sasuke spreads a constellation of feathery kisses all over his lover’s face, and they all seem to say ‘I missed you, I’m glad we’re together now’. In response, Naruto plays with his soft black hair, nodding in a silent ‘I know’, and apologizing with just as many kisses on his forehead and nose.

Neither of them speaks tonight.

At least, not with words.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is different from the previous version. Someone commented on how toxic and abusive their relationship was before and I agreed. It was a mistake I wish I hadn't done but my only option now is to correct it and I hope I did.
> 
> I'm always grateful for constructive criticism, so don't hold back! How else am I supposed to get better, right?
> 
> Don't forget to share your thoughts. If you've read the previous version let me know which one you liked better and, in case you're new, welcome!


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